In terms of our kids’s digital lives, prohibition not often works. It’s our duty to assist them construct a wholesome relationship with tech.
17 Feb 2026
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4 min. learn
The lives our kids lead at present are very totally different to our personal, 20, 30 and even 40-plus years in the past. And the primary motive for that distinction is know-how. For good and unhealthy, the appearance of smartphones and social media has basically modified the best way our youngsters work together with one another and the world round them. There’s no placing the genie again within the bottle. So the query for folks is, how can we handle the potential dangers whereas enabling our kids to steer blissful digital lives?
In terms of posting selfies, there are some particular harms to think about. However speaking issues by is at all times the very best first port of name.
The professionals and cons of social media
Though some would have you ever imagine in any other case, social media shouldn’t be inherently evil. In some methods, it will probably even profit children, offering a secure area for self-expression, and/or a neighborhood of likeminded individuals to share tales and friendship. Some youngsters might even attain out to search out assist and assist from official sources by way of their social media accounts, after they’re too scared to ask their dad and mom.
Nevertheless, context is every part. One vital clarification is whether or not your youngsters use social media primarily as a comms channel, to touch upon images and movies, or to repost content material. Or whether or not they often put up movies and selfies of themselves. Except their profile is locked down and often vetted, the latter may current some points.
How selfies can invite danger
As quickly as a selfie is posted onto a social media website, your youngster loses a certain quantity of management over it. Even when they delete it, your youngster might discover that the picture has been reposted and shared by their associates and followers.
This concept of “digital permanence” may not happen to a teen after they’re put up on-line. However it issues now greater than ever, in an age when AI bots are scraping social media content material to coach giant language fashions (LLMs). This amplifies the potential danger of personal content material leaking into the general public area.
Extra regarding nonetheless for folks are the dangers {that a} selfie may:
- Entice predators in search of victims to groom.
- Entice predators and extortionists in search of photographs they’ll feed into AI “nudifier” instruments, to make indecent content material. This may very well be shared on-line and/or used to blackmail the sufferer.
- Function private info like start dates, or the identify of their faculty, which may very well be utilized in mixture with different info to commit id theft.
- Be utilized by cyberbullies and trolls to victimize your youngster on-line.
- Comprise embarrassing or inappropriate particulars that are seen by employers or additional training establishments in years to come back.
Do selfies influence psychological well being?
There’s additionally a rising physique of proof to recommend that social media use, together with the posting of selfies, may end in psychological hurt. A 2017 examine of eighth to 12th graders discovered a 33% improve in depressive signs between 2010-2015. The suicide price for women on this age group elevated by 65% over the identical interval.
There’s no direct causal hyperlink right here. However the correlation is obvious, as this is similar interval that smartphone and social media penetration surged within the West. Specialists have additionally claimed that social media can influence younger individuals’s shallowness, bodily well being, and high quality of sleep. The usage of AI filters together with selfies may theoretically foment an unhealthy obsession with look at a time in life once we’re emotionally and psychologically susceptible. It’s a part of the rationale why the US surgeon normal in 2023 launched an advisory on Social Media and Younger Psychological Well being.
Time for parental steering
As dad and mom, now we have a singular and vital function to play in setting boundaries, educating finest follow and offering emotional and psychological assist for our youngsters. That is true of many features of life, however particularly the digital world.
Begin by opening the communication channels. Set clear guidelines about what sort of selfies needs to be off limits, corresponding to provocative photographs or something together with figuring out info like your handle. However stability this by educating your youngsters about privateness settings, together with learn how to prohibit their profile, swap off geolocation and require handbook approvals for others to tag them in images. Train them additionally why they need to be selective about who they permit to comply with them (i.e., solely individuals they’re associates with in actual life). And why it is likely to be helpful to do a “digital spring clear” each few months to take away sure followers and different contacts.
It is vital to create a non-judgmental, respectful surroundings so as to encourage honesty, particularly in case your youngster desires to speak to you about one thing they discover uncomfortable or embarrassing like cyberbullying or sextortion. However if you happen to really feel like that belief has been damaged, parental monitoring instruments are an choice, for limiting display screen time and entry to particular content material and apps.
Constructing a greater relationship with know-how
Finally, it’s not about banning your youngster from posting selfies. It’s about giving them the data to make rational, risk-based choices about what to put up on-line. That features warning them about predators, bullies and fraudsters. But in addition the potential psychological well being implications of extreme social media use.
So by all means attempt issues like minimizing display screen time at house, banning telephones on the desk, and setting apart an hour or two on the weekend for household actions. However you additionally want to steer by instance. A 2024 examine finds that 75% of oldsters share images, movies and different content material on their youngsters. Earlier than you begin a dialog concerning the execs and cons of your youngsters sharing selfies on-line, take into account first reining in your “sharenting” habits.
